Final Summary/Reaction

After getting the results back from my survey, I found it really interesting how people have so many different opinions on family and marriage. I asked the people who took my surveys to evaluate their view of family and marriage. The survey questions were meant for the people (mostly girls between the age of 16 and 17) to evaluate their own family lives; whether parents are married or divorced. It was interesting to see how the girls with the divorced parents looked at the questions I asked like, "what do you consider a truly successful family and marriage?", with a more pessimistic view than girls with parents who are married and who valued the importance of in-tact family and marriage. My survey and evaluation of my own family conveyed opinions  about family and marriage that varied based on a person's family status right now and what they believed to be important in their lives.

Revised Summary/Plan/Update

I revised my plan to asking survey questions to between 5-10 friends and myself about family life and marriage.  It was too challenging and broad to try and get answer from all family members therefore I made the questions more specific about family life getting the results of one's view on an in-tact family and marriage.  After receiving some of the surveys back I have found various answers to all the questions showing how people's views of a successful in-tact family and marriage can vary. My friends are able to evaluate their relationships with their parents and the parent to parent relationships in their families and convey it to me through the survey questions.

Strategy and Plan for Research

I am planning on giving a survey to my family and two other families; my best friend's family and my cousin's family. The survey will be general for all members of the immediate family (siblings and both parents).  Examples of questions I will ask on the survey are as follows: who is the dominant person in the family? who makes most decisions in the family? what is everyone's roles? do you feel in control of your children's  lives? do you think it is necessary to be a whole family unit rather than separated or divorced? etc. Then I will use that data from the three families and observe my own family and compare and contrast the families to see what is similar and what is different. The survey will  help me get some background information on what the families' think occurs, and then I will actually observe the daily events of a family and the relationships between parent and child. I predict that the families are going to vary in how they interact within their family. I also predict that it my observations will show it is important to have two "in-tact" parents when growing up.

Project

For my project I am going to use a naturalistic/participant observation. I want to evaluate how families interact with each other..who is the dominant person in the family? what are the children and parent relationships like? I plan to do this by evaluating my own family and my close friends family. I am going to focus on how it is important for two parents to be present and "in-tact" when raising children. Another focus point is going to be how all the members of family interact with each other to make their family work and run smoothly.

The Importance of Marriage in Today's Society

In my eyes, marriage is a gift that naturally occurs when two people fall in love and make the vows of being together for the rest of their lives in which they can build upon a community. Marriage is constantly evolving from what it was in  history to what people view marriage as now. Marriage has taken on both positive and negative connotations from society.  In  The Meanings of Marriage, the article focuses on how marriage needs to continue to be an "apt and cheerful" conversation between men and women in society today. A statement that stood out to me from this article was, "For marriage is one of the great mediators of individuality and community, revelation and reason, tradition and modernity. Marriage is at once a harbor of the self and a harbinger of the community, a symbol of divine love and a structure of reasoned consent, an enduring ancient mystery and a constantly modern invention."  I agree with this statement because I do think that marriage is something that creates a community and is something that is constantly evolving to conform to societies' beliefs and views on marriage. Marriage links the past to the future and brings people together in society. However, marriage and family life are in trouble today.  More and more children are being born into single parent environments or into families where either the mother or father is not nearly as present and involved as the other parent.  This is why it is clear that society has many different views on marriage and family life. 

Media View on Marriage and Family

There are many different portraits of family life shown in the media, specifically on television. This article The Perfect Family discusses how the media has created it's own view and ways to interpret family life on television. Watching Full House and seeing Uncle Jesse, Danny Tanner (Dad), and Uncle Joey, raising their daughters and nieces is one way to show an different view of how raising children and the ups and downs of that large task, especially with girls.  Television shows show the family dynamic and try to relate to normal families at home. Shows like Full House and George Lopez try to relate to normal families and try to show the decisions and hardships families face so people can relate. Normal families have parents that argue, siblings who do not always cooperate with each other and the family as a whole having a conflict. Shows make certain views and stereotypes of what roles certain family members have. For example, in the show I Love Lucy, Ricky (the husband) was a professional entertainer, and Lucy was a scattered, funny, stay at home wife. The couple first lived in the city and then moved to the suburbs where they would eventually start a family. It is important for people to realize that a family does argue and have times of disagreement  Therefore society should not let television shows and the media impact your view of family life.

 This is the show Full House and shows the two uncles and father, and the three daughters and nieces.












This is the show I Love Lucy and this is Lucy and her husband Ricky

The Effects of Married Parents on Children

In this article of Why Children Need Married Parents, I found some interesting results of why children are more successful when having two parents married when growing up. Children raised in an intact family environment are less prone to falling into the pressures of drugs, alcohol, and from not continuing one's education through to college. Children with intact parents are not as likely to get a divorce because of how their childhood was and what a child knows to be considered normal to them. I think that makes sense because I know a person who's parents have been divorced her whole life and marriage is not one of her key goals in life. Where as I have lived with both my parents and see marriage as a very important part of my future. Although I think that a person makes their own views and opinions on what marriage is and it's aspects, I do believe that your parent's relationships impacts your views. Living with both a mother and father at the same time gives a child the gender roles that he or she is supposed to conform to. The absence of either a mother or father in a child's daily life can effect how they are raised and what gender roles they play.

Building a Healthy Marriage from the Start

I look at a healthy marriage being two people who have equal respect and love towards each other. A marriage  needs to consist of both spouses making an effort when it comes to the relationship.  Relationships form over time and through that time certain patterns and disciplines are formed in the relationships. A person's every day actions effect one's relationship. It is important to set priorities in your relationship for the future but know that your marriage is the main priority of all. As years go by, and couples have kids, peoples' marriages should not fade away but to realize that it is still crucial for the relationship to do things just for you and your spouse. As Jimmy Evans says during this clip, a married couple should keep parts of their routine,  like having a date night once a week, even after have children and life becoming more crazy. It is important to  re-evaluate your relationship every so often to make sure a couple doesn't lose the romance and the being in love factor of marriage.

The "Perfect" Family

There are many views of the "perfect" family from all different groups of people according to this website article Family Life. In the United States the family unit has been changing rapidly as time progresses. There is the stereotypical family unit of having two parents (a mother and father) active in your life, where you may have one or more brothers or sisters.  In this stereotypical family unit, the father is the care taker of the house economically and the mother stays home and cares for the children.  However, in today's society with the increasing divorce rates, more and more women are joining the workforce and the single parent "family unit" is growing.  These once taboo households (having divorces, single parenting) are becoming extremely common among the US.

Children are now aware of the different family units that a good percent of the US lives in.   The likeliness of kids having  friends who's parents are divorced is very common, children are becoming more familiar with the different family structures.  Children are learning about the different relationships other children have with their parents. Ever since I was born, I have known my older cousin with having her two parents divorced before I came along. Therefore, it was always just her and my aunt living together and my aunt being the dominant role in parenting and taking on the financial aspect of the family. My Aunt was able to give my cousin everything and worked hard for daughter and herself. This is a perfect example of how Americans have dealt with the decreasing of the stereotypical family unit and are commonly seeing single parent-households and other family arrangements that are becoming  more common.

Communication is KEY

In this Family Life article, Communication is something that I believe can make or break marriages and relationships.  Some spouses have endless amount of hours to talk to each other and to have conversations with their children.  Where as others may only have that 4 hour time from 6 to 10 o'clock at night,  after a ten hour day at work or school and activities.  Whichever it is, communicating is important for parent relationships and marriage relationships. I think it is important to get into a routine when communicating so long periods of time don't pass when you have not communicated with someone. Through this article, I have also learned that there are ways to talk to one another. In my own family, communication is very important.  Witnessing pointless and stupid fights between my mom and dad because "my dad said something with a certain tone" or vice versa,  has taught me that the meaning of what one says and how you say it is crucial to avoid  wasting time being angry at each other. These petty fights can also occur between children and parents.

The Start

The topic I chose for sociology is Marriage and Family: In-Tact. I found this topic really interesting because in today's society the family unit and the relationships in it can be completely different from family to family.  Through society, people also have totally different views on marriage; some people could view it as something completely necessary where as others may think marriage is not a necessity in life and not needed to start a family.   I know that I have a completely different relationship with my parents than my friends have with their parents.   A couple of questions i would like to investigate in this semester are What makes a truly happy family? and is there such thing as a truly happy family? What is societies view of a perfect family? What are the main hardships in a marriage? I'm really excited to start my research on this project!